1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a portable terminal, and more particularly, to a portable terminal and method for providing a haptic effect to an input unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable terminals continue to provide an increasing number of services and additional functions to users. To increase the utilization of portable terminals and satisfy various users' demands, many applications have been developed for use in portable terminals.
Along with this trend, many applications can be installed in a portable terminal that has a touch screen, such as a smart phone, mobile phone, note PC and a tablet Personal Computer (PC). Objects (or shortcut icons) representing applications are displayed on a touch screen of the portable terminal, so that a user may execute an intended application by touching an associated shortcut icon on the touch screen. Besides the shortcut icons, many other visual objects including widgets, photos, and text are displayed on the touch screen of the portable terminal.
The portable terminal allows a user's touch input on a displayed object through an input unit such as a finger, an electronic pen, a stylus pen, etc. The touch input may be applied through a contact input by touching the touch screen with a part of the user's body (or any other touch input unit) or by providing touch input in a non-contact manner by holding (hovering) a part of the user's body (or another input unit) above the touch screen. This touch input scheme provides a user-friendly User Interface (UI).
Recently, methods of generating vibrations upon input of a touch on a touch screen through a vibration device have been proposed, in order to give a user a sense of manipulation similar to that provided when a physical button were pressed. Such various touch input schemes are actively being studied, and research is also conducted in order to determine ways to satisfy users' demands for new, pleasant multi-sense interfaces.
According to previously-existing methods, when a user manipulates a portable terminal, vibrations are provided to an input unit through a touch screen, in order to give the user a sense of manipulation, as described above. Although this touch input scheme enables the user to feel contact between the input unit and the touch screen, this scheme has limitations in transferring an actual feeling of using an application to the user. Accordingly, there exists a need for providing an advanced UI input unit that goes beyond its simple role of selecting an object on a touch screen in order to keep up with increased expectations of users regarding touch inputs.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of embodiments of the present invention. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.